Scouting Report:Yankees: After an up-and-down spring, this will be Igawa’s first big league start of ’08. The Japanese import had a shaky first season in the Majors and started this season 3-3 with a 3.86 ERA in seven starts at Triple-A. Igawa did not face the Tigers in the 14 big league appearances (12 starts) he made last year, and was 0-2 with a 5.76 ERA in five starts away from Yankee Stadium.

Tigers: Rogers retired the first 11 Twins he faced in order Sunday at the Metrodome before Minnesota began chipping away at what had been a six-run lead. He arguably should have finished his afternoon with seven innings and three runs allowed, but a two-out error in the seventh extended the inning for the Twins’ go-ahead rally. Rogers allowed two runs on six hits in six innings to the Yankees last week in the Bronx.

Scouting Report:Yankees: Rasner made his first 2008 start in the Majors against Seattle on Sunday. He gave up two runs on two hits in the first inning, and then settled in to pitch five scoreless innings, during which he gave up only three hits. With youngsters Phil Hughes, who is injured, and Ian Kennedy, who is working out his pitching problems in Triple-A, not around, Rasner has a great chance to stick with the team and said he intends to take advantage of it. He didn’t walk a batter on Sunday and yielded only six in 31 innings at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Tigers: The good news for Bonderman was that his slider was more consistent as an out pitch in his last start against Boston. The bad news was he yielded a pair of two-run homers that sank his fortunes in defeat. He needed 113 pitches to last six innings, but he was much more efficient in his previous start against the Yankees. If he can keep that up in the rematch, he could continue his pattern of alternating wins and losses so far this season.

Scouting Report:Yankees: Pettitte started and recorded a no-decision in his 400th career start on Tuesday, despite limiting the Indians to two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings and striking out a season-high six batters. His only blemish was a two-run homer to Jhonny Peralta on a sinker that did not cut quite enough, a problem Pettitte continues to fight in his bullpen sessions. He lost to the Tigers on April 30 in New York, allowing five earned runs in six innings for his third loss.

Tigers: Robertson doesn’t have a quality start in seven outings so far this year, and he has been inefficient with his pitches in his last two outings. Still, if he can repeat the last five innings of his victory over the Yankees from May 1, he’d be pretty happy, considering he gave up a three-run home run to Bobby Abreu three batters into his outing that night.

Oh yeah Betemit! Nice defensive play! This guy is allergic to the ball, come on! You have to place your chest and body in front everything, ESPECIALLY choppers, and have your glove lying low to the ground. Your muscles flex faster then they stretch! Idiotic move by Betemit right there. If he would put his body in front of it, he wouldve knocked it down, possibly even caught with his glove, and made a good play. Defense isnt suppoesed to look prety.. an out is an out.

Matt. Wait up … ” Stand clear of the opening doors, please! ” Okay. Yeah, you might wanna grab yourself a nice Lipton Brisk Iced Tea, a little newspaper, a couple duffle bags full of clothing and join me and my gang on the ” Panic Train to Nowhere”. I’m not panicking, if I was a panicker, I wouldn’t be the four hitter on my team’s lineup. More like ” the Soul Train en route to 2nd Place AL East” It’s nice and cool in here too!

I’m all for bringing back David Wells…It’s worth a shot to see what he can do…At least we know he can handle the pressure of pitching in New York…Not like Ian Kennedy, who by his comments [when he was sent down to SWB] just may have a problem with the “New York pressure thing” !!!

Okay, now it’s definite, especially with the way Rogers just dominated the Yankees. Hank should be saying F@$# this youngster movemnt SH^$^$. When Hughes does THAT, tell him to call me!” I can see Wells in uniform in abou a week from now.

Yeah, Kei Igawa didn’t pitch good at all tonight…Again, he threw way too many pitches “up in the strike zone”; and, the Tigers hit him very hard….But, the Yankees defense has been terrible tonight…The missed scoop by Duncan at first on the Jeter throw [an error that was changed to a hit]; the ball that took a bad bounce down the left field line that Matsui had trouble with; and, of course, the many balls that got past Wilson Betemit at third, and the balls that just bounced around and off his glove….Why was Alberto Gonzalez sent back down to AAA-SWB???…At least, if Gonzalez was a third base tonight, the score would be 3-1, not 6-1 [through the 6th inning]…Then, we could be focusing on why the Yankees are not scoring any runs in this game…Not a great way to start the road trip [so far].

Well you guys are great at kicking dirt on a little showing of light. OF COURSE, YOU LOOK AT THE STATS and there’s nothing great about it. Jeeze. My point was to extract some positives from the negatives. If it were up to you guys, I gawa would be in Japan again.

With that said, I am not Hank Steinbrenner. His next move may be to introduce Wells at the next homestand. What should be done is call up Steven White, like Matt has suggested. Another prospect we should take a look at is/ are:

Throwing strikes doesn’t mean a whole lot if he can’t get outs. Four of those 11 hits were doubles, and he allowed 6 runs. A majorreason why he was taken out when he was. Every pitcher is going to run into great lineups now and then, it’s how he performs against them that everyone will look at, as well as the results. IF the Yanks can’t come back against the Tigers, it’s because he took them out of the game.

I think Igawa did great today. Ofcourse, he struggled,, and serously, I think Girardi pulled the plug waaaay to early. First of all, he threw strikes, and for a couple innings was ACTUALLY dominant. Second of all, He’s facing a right handed lineup. I don’t know who makes the game time decisions, but really, a left hander versus a right handed lineup is just asking for trouble, never mind that Detroit’s lineup is full of sluggers. Igawa just ran into a great lineup, a bad personnel decision and some timely errors.

Do I think he’ll rebound and come back in his next start? Yes. I liek the way he’s been pitching, and I just think today was a bad day. Rasner needed to be in there today, not Igawa.

I don’t care who the Yankees start as long as they get rid of Kei (my real name is Hideki Irabu) Igawa. This guy is NOT I repeat is NOT a major league pitcher. Give this bum a one way ticket to Osaka or send him to see his buddy Carl Pavano. How many times are we going to pitch this guy before management figures it out? Take the financial loss and send him packing. As far as I am concerned this is another nail in Cashman’s coffin. I’d rather pitch Steven White or anyone but this bum.

CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHY THE YANKEES START KEI IGAWA AGAINST THE BEST RIGHT-HANDED HITTING TEAM IN BASEBALL? I mean come on. He’s a soft-throwing lefty. If you want to win DONT START KEI IGAWA. Rasner had a great outing, so start him. Too bad my first comment was a rant on Igawa. Yankees for life. I’m out.

I don’t care what anyone says, this should be Igawa’s last chance to make the team, period. They’ve given him several chances to show improvement, but each time it ends the same, in total failure. This team should just try to trade him or just eat his contract and just release him. He is what he is, a mediocre pitcher, I’m getting sick of seeing this crappola from him. How many chances is he going to get?

Gil Meche would be agood option for the Yanks to go after, and is very underrated. Only has 66 wins in 8 seasons but all with terrible teams. Won’t cost this team much. Don’t think the Yanks can get Harden, but if they do it should only be as a set-up man for the next couple of seasons, and then convert him to closer once Rivera is retired. All of that would be contingent on him be willing to make that change. At least that way the Yanks could get Chamberlain out of the pen and into the rotation. Yanks can’t consider Harden as a starter considering his history of injuries. Blanton would be the other option, but again don’t think the Yanks will get him, A’s will be asking for a lot for either Blanton, or Harden.

I know like what two maybe three New Yorkers that talk like that. All are in the old age home my school makes me visit.
Whoever mentioned that Cano is hitting again. You can thank me. I wore his jersey the other day to the game. Yeah, it’s definatly me.

I don’t know how I got blocked. I tried logging in all day yesterday and this morning to no avail. I guess my alligator mouth got me in trouble again. Funny thing is, I emailed Hoch and he says he didn’t block anyone. I really don’t know what happened. I figured that bpark got sewered at me for slamming his boy Clemens, and reported me. I hope noone except Sentinel ever takes what I say seriously in here. If I am not questioning someone’s opinion, how will they ever know that they are wrong?

I hope David Wells doesn’t come back. He’ll get rocked in the post season if the Yankees make it that far. I’m also not too sure about Igawa tonight. My confidence isn’t high on him. I like Rasner and Pettitte though.

Now Damon being traded might not be a stretch. I just don’t see him as the quality leadoff guy we need and have needed for awhile. I know everyone goes through slumps but Damon should be well over .300 as a leadoff and he’s been ‘below-average’ in that respect since he came here for the most part.

Problem though is that we have to get back an OF for Damon otherwise we’re relying on Godzilla’s knees too much.

You all should give it a whirl… it’s much less stressful than Fantasy League for sure!

You just go in and your main page has each date, you select it and it gives you the schedules, you select your team it will then show you the past 5 years I believe (if there’s five years worth of stats) a hitter and pitcher has against one-another. Select your boy and you’re done!

My mainstays so far have been: Abreu, Jeter, Matsui and Cabrera. Giambi has some killer stats against some pitchers but egads it’s hard to take him because of his current hitting issues… ;)

Damon of course as I said has good numbers too but has been too inconsistent as a leadoff for me to bank on.

Posada out hurts because he also has good career numbers.

Cano has good numbers too but they’re a bit misleading, or, he’s just in an extended slump. He will get used more when he shows he’s going to be consistent! heheh

I really enjoy(ed) playing fantasy b-ball moreso than the other sports, but I always had a poor pitching staff… just couldn’t get the holds and low WHIP and all those stats… Must’ve not really scrutinized my pitcher selections, but it was tough depending on your draft order, most of the good aces were already gone! Bullpen help is hard to guess at too, even career numbers can be skewed from year to year. I actually won a Football league once!

I’m getting sick of ESPN commenting on the fact that Chamberlain pumps his fists time to time after striking some sucker out. GET OVER IT! That’s what the game needs more of, passion, baby, I love it! And my sucky hometown team the Rangers might want to trade Vincente Padilla, he’s not great but he can eat some innings, which is what the Yanks need now.

Gil Meche is in line for another four year of $46 Million dollar baseball. I would think that if the Royals were to unload him, they’d have to eat some of his salary, though the Yankees have never had any financial trouble, $46 Mil is nothing to sneeze at.

Another pitcher we could acquire is Oakland’s Joe Blanton. He’s been very good this year, and has shown that he can stay healthy. Of course, if in July Oakland is in contention, he’s going nowhere, but I highly doubt that. The fact that he is in the last year of his contract tells me that he’s more likely to be moved than Meche.

This is just speculation, and we don’t really know how Igawa and Rasner are going to be this year OR how Kennedy and Hughes will turn out either. BUT, assuming the Yankees were looking to be buyers at the deadline, these are some suggestions they should look at.

Wholahan, Oh for sure, Matsui has been in there too, I mentioned Jete and Abreu as they generally have the best average against pitchers faced. I’ve used Godzilla a few times and he hasn’t disappointed, but you have to have your picks in very early in the morning and Matsui hasn’t been in the lineup every day, so I try to guess as best I can. He actually has the best average against Bonderman or Robertson, one of the Detroit pitchers, so I’ll pencil him in for one of the Detroit games.

Damon has good averages too but he’s been so spotty this year it’s hard to go with him!

C.C. Sabathia ( pending a July extension, although he said it wass either this offseason or next offseason, whcih doesn’t bode well for the Tribe. We’ll see the approach they take this July, they’re still a contender. )

BTW, I asked this earlier in the season but didn’t see anyone respond… I was wondering if any of my fellow bloggers play the Beat the Streak game with MLB.com?

I played a year or two ago but not regularly enough.

Pretty much the same story this year, but I’ve been trying not to forget and make sure I get my picks in (I don’t like to go more than a few days out otherwise I don’t know who the SP will be). But, my twist on this is that I am only using Yankees! I’ve gotten up to a 5 game streak so far but Jeter and Abreu keep going 0-fer to break my run! Yes on offdays I do have to use someone else… but I just thought it’d be neat to see how long of a streak I can get with nothing but Yankees… Back to zero for today… :P picked Jete yesterday and should’ve went with Abreu.

T’was a nice a game yesterday, I’m saying it again, I’ve been very proud and impressed with Mussina, who I’m normally very hard on. I suppose we’ll have to take the good and the bad tho, so I’ll try to remember that if/when he gets tattooed for a bunch of runs somtime soon.

Interestingly, when I watched the sportscenter show last night, they focused on Joba getting Delucci, but not one mention of Mo. Did he not save the game? Or, is him closing the game out (save or not) no longer noteworthy?

I know they were focused on Joba because of the homer he gave up the other day, but uh, that’s history! ESPN aside…

Wells… ugh! It does seem like the Brass are not using their collective brains. If it’s a rebuilding year, then it is. But to sit here and tell us that your worried NOW is a bit disengenuous. Now that you’ve seen the Rooks struggle, you’re of a different opinion? Come on, who in their right mind expected the Two youngsters (even Joba) to come in and not get beat up at all? There were a few pitchers we could’ve gotten, we decided they weren’t worth it, so here we are, now LIVE with it. Sheesh all this backpedaling is getting us nowhere. Wells on this team is another youngster NOT getting ML experience that could be beneficial to both him and our team down the road.

Of course Yankee fans are going to be disappointed, we have expectations. But, by the same token, we also have to realize that the roster HAS to turnover eventually, so whether it’s today or next year, or five years from now, the faces will change. We can’t continue to hang on to past excellence and be sucked into believing that players past their prime are going to magically be able to produce as they once did just because we pick them up!

The staff has to get younger, not replaced with the likes of the same people we lose! Wells is like having Clemens last year, not having a Kennedy or a Hughes. Also, this is the price you pay for dealing all your farm talent away over the years trying to do the “win now” thang. If we don’t have solid ML ready pitchers on the farm, then that’s not going to turnaround over night and we need to keep that in perspective.

I’d think that Hank would realize this too given that he loves to talk about his Horses and seeing them mature through their various stages. Eventually you have to put them out to pasture too. ;)

Wells hasn’t signed yet, and not likely going to happen. That would be a sure sign that the Yanks are already starting to panic. Wells can no longer pitch in the minors, I would rather see Gator pitch than an over-the -hill pitcher. If he did sign I’ll be joining bdsouth a lot sooner than I thought on the Panic Train to Nowhere. Hey, I like that maybe I can sell that as a title to a group like Metallica for their next album.

The fact is, Wells can no more pitch in the AL East now than he could in the NL West. I mean come on. We need Rasner and Igawa to throw a couple strong starts to put that Wells nonsense to bed. When is IPK’s next start?

Here here Chaz, the youth movement was a breath of fresh air and I guess all of the impatient fans will get their wish and get a fat, old, worthless pitcher who will make just as much of a difference as Rasner, Igawa, White or whoever we bring up. The difference is we’ll pay them some moronic contract and expect them to be “the savior” of the season only to watch other teams not panic and do better.

Just checked that Wells article and something stuck in my mind. Wasn’t Steinbrenner Jr. the one telling the public to be patient with this team, and that we wouldn’t be the 98 Yankees this season? Now he’s wanting to bring in the old-timer’s to see if we can squeeze more blood out of that turnip? Funny how a few bumps in the road compel people to immediately push the panic button. Nice to see that the youth in our pitching staff has little to 0 margin for error. You don’t win every night, you get replaced by someone 2 times your age. I guess most Yankee fans feel the same way, though. I suppose when some of these “failures” get moved to other teams, develop, and become staples in rotations around the majors. We can take solace in the fact that they were once Yankees. Not saying that pitchers like Igawa and Karstens are not very close to their last chance, but several others have yet to prove what they have to offer either way, good or bad.

Hopefully, we don’t throw away very many good pitching performances by not capitalizing on chances at the dish. Nothing makes me more frustrated with this team than losing a pitching duel. Getting shut out should not happen more than maybe twice for the entire year with this lineup, even without Posada and A-Rod. Rattle the bats, Yanks. Do me proud.

Is anyone seeing that Cano has been hitting the ball vey well over the last several games? That jack he hit was off a 1-0 pitch, if I do recall. The first pitch he got was an offspeed down and away and he stayed off it. Sure enough, the next pitch he got was a get-it-in heater over the plate and he crushed it. This is the Cano we need to see alot more of. Cano gets ahead in the count = Cano is one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball.

Yesterday’s win was a clear illustration of what I’ve been saying all season. Moose didn’t have the best game ever, but he did enough to keep us in the ballgame. This is all we need from the bottom of this rotation. We should drive in enough runs off of the 3,4, and 5 starters for other teams to win ballgames. Pettite and Wang can counter just about any 1 and 2 in the American League. We score over 5 runs per game, we win 100 ballgames, same as Boston. GO YANKEES!!!!!!

YESTERDAY WAS FREAKIN AWESOME! First trip to the Stadium! And a MOOSE WIN. 4 in a row. And I get to now say that I have seen both one of Bob Stanley’s 4 wins in the 1987 season and a Wilson Bet “I can’t get another homer this season” amit homer!
Moose was on yesterday, throwing first pitch strikes which for him is key. Yes, he labored in the 5th unfortunately and I think the hit batter rattled him. Had he gotten out of the 5th easily he could have gone 6 or 7 no problem. As it was Ross came in and looked sharp. But the capper was Joba fanning Delucci to end the 8th!
Was a very emotional day, being at the Stadium with my 9 year old son and my 74 year old father. The number 4 train from 125th. Everything just went great!

Back in time

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